Ohio thrill-seekers looking for a little haunted excitement can find a good scare at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield.

Once a working prison, the building is now a popular tourist attraction, offering daytime tours, an annual Halloween Tour and overnight ghost hunts. For $50 a person, guests have access to the building from 8 p.m. until dawn.

Completed in 1896, the reformatory was home to over 154,000 inmates and employed thousands in its 94 years in operation.

Prisoners came and went. Some transferred prisons or obtained parole, but some never left. There are 215 people buried under numbered markers in a graveyard just outside the prison fence.

According to people who have attended one of the ghost hunts, the spirits of those buried at the prison still haunt the halls and cells of the prison.

Many visitors to the grounds have reported hearing a man and a woman whispering in the warden's administration wing. Some believe these voices to be those of one of the prison's wardens and his wife.

Rebecca Shott has paid many visits to the Ohio State Reformatory and she has written detailed accounts of her visits on the ParaHaunt Web site.

"I am a firm believer that there are many unfortunate spirits who refer to the tremendous stone structure as their humble abode," she said.

Shott said she believes the photographs, video and recordings she has taken at the reformatory back her up.

Orbs and anomalies appear on photographs, strange lights and noises were caught on video, and voices have been recorded, Shott said.

"Professional ghost hunters and/or professional photographers have confirmed all the photos I've taken on ghost hunts," she said.

Not all visitors to the prison have left the prison not seeing or hearing anything out of the usual.

Beth *Removed for Privacy*, a student who runs a paranormal Web site called Grave Addiction, reported nothing unusual during her visit.

"I didn't experience anything paranormal while I was there, but we did hear a ghostly 'hello' on one of our recordings."

To read the article on the Lantern's site, click here.

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